S01.E01: Day One

[Meredith Quill]

Quote

Fresh out of the FBI Academy, Simone Clark arrives in Los Angeles and has her sights set on joining Matthew Garza’s newly formed special unit as they investigate the murder of a federal engineer. Garza’s squad includes Carter Hope, a promotion-hungry traditionalist, Laura Stenson, a talented agent in desperate need of a second chance, and Brendon Acres, a former actor who graduated from Quantico with Simone. On the home front, Simone and Cutty’s father-daughter relationship is put to the test as their opposing opinions about law enforcement come to a head.

Original Air Date: Sept 27, 2022

[AnimeMania]

S01.E01: Day One

Fresh out of the FBI Academy, Simone Clark arrives in Los Angeles and has her sights set on joining Matthew Garza’s newly formed special unit as they investigate the murder of a federal engineer. Garza’s squad includes Carter Hope, a promotion-hungry traditionalist, Laura Stenson, a talented agent in desperate need of a second chance, and Brendon Acres, a former actor who graduated from Quantico with Simone. On the home front, Simone and Cutty’s father-daughter relationship is put to the test as their opposing opinions about law enforcement come to a head.

Premiere Date: Tuesday, September 27, 2022      10pm     ABC
Nathan Fillion as John Nolan
Alyssa Diaz as Angela Lopez 

[AnimeMania]

I liked the show, the story was fairly tight. Finding the right Federal building employee after only looking at 4 files was very improbable, but typical for a police procedural. I am not sure how they expect the ex-Actor to go undercover, if everybody he meets instantly recognizes him and starts posting his arrests online. The online videos will be good publicity and will make it harder to shut down the unit when the opportunity avails itself.

[Brian Cronin]

It's very weird that they added Kevin Zegers from Rebel to go along with James Lesure from Rebel, right?

[Brian Cronin]

Okay, this show is waaaaaaaay better than it has any right to be. The key thing that they did right was to jettison Kat Foster and bring in a great group of supporting actors in Lesure, Zegers and Britt Robertson. Basically, you need to support Niecy Nash with a pile of strong dramatic actors and that's exactly what they've done, allowing the show to work well even when the focus isn't on Simone. 

Also, with this task force vaguely illegal setup, it sounds a lot like Hawaii Five-O, so that we'll be so busy on fast-paced missions that there's not a lot of room for Nash to vamp too much. I like her a lot, I do, but the backdoor pilot gave her way too much time to vamp. A little goes a long way with Nash, and the format of the show seems designed to get the best of that. 

I could still do for less "As a guidance counselor" stuff, though. Just say what you've noticed, you don't need to always preface it with the fact that you learned it from being a guidance counselor. No one is impressed by hearing that. "As a guidance counselor, I came to notice the important thing is what we people AREN'T doing, like here, they're NOT breaking and entering, which means they probably have someone on the inside" vs "Notice what they're NOT doing here, they're NOT breaking and entering, which means they probably have someone on the inside." The second is so much better, and what an actual FBI agent would say. 

[AnimeMania]

Another TV trope, they gave the Texas authorities a generous heads up that a major crime was being committed and yet the task force are still the only authorities on the scene and none of the escape routes were being monitored or blocked. 

I am guessing the fishbowl girl is their computer whiz / technical support, I think they need to consult her more while they are in the field for building schematics, facial recognition, background checks/data, etc. to get her to say more than "to the fishbowl" twice an episode and disappear.

Edited September 28, 2022 by AnimeMania

[shapeshifter]

Even more gratuitous violence mixed with silly comedy than The Rookie or Castle. 
Ugh. 
Monk and——to a lesser degree ——Castle succeeded in balancing the comedy and the drama.  
The Rookie has weaker comedy. 
The Rookie Fed is wandering into Jackass territory, IMO, which is not a place I want to tune in to see. But I’ll probably watch at least a few more.

[Raja]

I don't know if they needed as much inner office politics complete with a death sentence hanging over the boss.  Of the cameos from the mothership having Smitty doing actual police work was the surprise

[milkyaqua]

So boss lady is trying to take the unit down by going after the team leader?  Seems there are easier ways for her to do this.  At some point I guess (the season finale) she's supposed to be stuck with egg on her face?

[Brian Cronin]

10 hours ago, milkyaqua said:

So boss lady is trying to take the unit down by going after the team leader?  Seems there are easier ways for her to do this.  At some point I guess (the season finale) she's supposed to be stuck with egg on her face?

I think the task force only exists BECAUSE of Garza's political capital, ya know?

[cardigirl]

On 9/28/2022 at 3:49 AM, Brian Cronin said:

Okay, this show is waaaaaaaay better than it has any right to be. The key thing that they did right was to jettison Kat Foster and bring in a great group of supporting actors in Lesure, Zegers and Britt Robertson. Basically, you need to support Niecy Nash with a pile of strong dramatic actors and that's exactly what they've done, allowing the show to work well even when the focus isn't on Simone. 

This sentence encouraged me to watch episode one, and I'm not sure I agree. It's well filmed, but the storyline with Niecy is just. so. contrived. Plus, her first day in the office and she's wearing and extremely low cut top.  Cleavage for miles!  Very unprofessional, even if she is living and working in L.A.  

Her voice grates my ears, too. I will give it another shot and watch the next episode, but I don't hold out much hope.  

I watch The Rookie for Captain Tightpants, and this show hasn't given me anything close to that.  😁

[Zaffy]

1 hour ago, cardigirl said:

Cleavage for miles! 

I guess no age limit and no dress code in this FBI universe! 😁

[Cryonix]

I watched this as I always watch Rookie but Niecy Nash is so over the top with everything she says & does, not to mention as Cardigirl says, she's wearing way too low cut tops, she just looks ridiculous.

Don't know if I'll continue to watch if she keeps acting this way & looks the same with the low cut tops. surely there would be a dress code for the FBI. I will give it a couple more episodes, won't continue if it doesn't get any better.

I did like to see Nolan & Smitty for a few scenes tho.

[Brian Cronin]

4 hours ago, cardigirl said:

This sentence encouraged me to watch episode one, and I'm not sure I agree. It's well filmed, but the storyline with Niecy is just. so. contrived. Plus, her first day in the office and she's wearing and extremely low cut top.  Cleavage for miles!  Very unprofessional, even if she is living and working in L.A.  

Her voice grates my ears, too. I will give it another shot and watch the next episode, but I don't hold out much hope.  

I watch The Rookie for Captain Tightpants, and this show hasn't given me anything close to that.  😁

I apologize for possibly being misleading. "Way better than it should have been" is not yet good, ya know? 

[sweetandsour]

It was insane to me that they made a big point of Kevin Zegers' character wearing clothes that were too tight, complete with his splitting the seams during his foot pursuit.  His clothes were barely tighter on him than James Lesure's or Britt Robertson's.  Yet no one says anything about Niecy's clothes!

I like Niecy in campier things, and when the pace and tone of the show fit her style and antics.  I thought she was great in Scream Queens, but that show absolutely supported craziness and people being self-indulgent.  Maybe the producers think her style works just as well in The Rookie, but it doesn't.  Is it wrong that I find myself impatient when she talks on this show?  Like, "spit it out, let's keep this crime procedural going, please!"

That self-indulgence is my biggest problem with Feds.  She is the star, it is Niecy's show.  Got it, no problem.  But I don't want to watch "The Niecy Nash Show" where it's all about how great she always is, and everyone who doubts her is always wrong, and her constant pushiness in an order-following law enforcement group is warranted and rewarded because she is the key to success.  She is also that super annoying new co-worker who constantly talks about her previous jobs and compares them to her new job.  You know that person - they used to work at Target and then go to work at Nordstrom, and they're always saying, "blah blah is how it was at Target" and "at Target, we blah blah."

I like the supporting players, but I too am hanging on by a thread.  Britt Robertson is a serial one or two season actress (and not by design, like in Big Sky).  I don't know that this will be the show that goes the distance.

I know everyone is looking forward to "Rookie Universe" (side-eye ...) crossovers where Bailey and Niecy team up and solve the world's problems by fighting fires with capoeira and talking to a 40-year-old man's sixth grade teacher.  Bailey will bake a professional-level cake in the heat of the fires, too - all before Nolan comes back from his 30-minute jog.

OK, well that was a lot of criticism, so I will at least say Rookie Feds is better executed than Monarch.

[bros402]

Is it just me... or would this show be so much better without Niecy Nash's character?

[WendyCR72]

46 minutes ago, bros402 said:

Is it just me... or would this show be so much better without Niecy Nash's character?

Which is problematic since Nash/her character are why this exists at all. But yeah, I agree. Good luck to those that continue. The pilot did zip for me.

[bros402]

23 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

Which is problematic since Nash/her character are why this exists at all. But yeah, I agree. Good luck to those that continue. The pilot did zip for me.

I'll probably give it 4 episodes (I remember back in the day, tv.com had a post from one of the writer saying if you were interested in a show, do the four episode test - watch the first four episodes to see if you like it or not) 

[shapeshifter]

27 minutes ago, bros402 said:

I'll probably give it 4 episodes (I remember back in the day, tv.com had a post from one of the writer saying if you were interested in a show, do the four episode test - watch the first four episodes to see if you like it or not) 

I’ve heard of the 3 episode test too.

[Thomas Crown]

I'll give it another couple of episodes too but it really wasn't great.  As others have mentioned above, this show would be much better without the character of Simone.  Just like the Rookie, I find myself more interested in the supporting cast than the lead character.  If they were going to do a spin-off of the Rookie, why couldn't they have done one focusing on Smitty instead who gets transferred to the another department and tries desperately NOT to advance in the departement? 

I hope we've seen the last of the horrible plot device of Simone coming to the rescue by accessing her top secret national database of high school guidance counsellors secret records. 🙄 

[bros402]

12 hours ago, Thomas Crown said:

I'll give it another couple of episodes too but it really wasn't great.  As others have mentioned above, this show would be much better without the character of Simone.  Just like the Rookie, I find myself more interested in the supporting cast than the lead character.  If they were going to do a spin-off of the Rookie, why couldn't they have done one focusing on Smitty instead who gets transferred to the another department and tries desperately NOT to advance in the departement? 

I hope we've seen the last of the horrible plot device of Simone coming to the rescue by accessing her top secret national database of high school guidance counsellors secret records. 🙄 

tbh at least with The Rookie, Nathan Fillion is charming and it floated on his charisma for a few episodes.

[juliet73]

I definitely like The Rookie way better!  Simone is just way too over the top  and her cleavage is the main character at this point!  If it's going to be Simone catches the bad guys every week because she used to be a high school guidance counselor vs seasoned agents (even though most of them look under 35), then I'm out.  I like James Lesure's character and Garza, and I can tolerate the former actor, but evil boss lady?  No, just no!  I would definitely like to see more time spent fleshing out the other supporting roles and less of Simone all together.  

Edited October 8, 2022 by juliet73

[SnarkySheep]

On 9/29/2022 at 8:30 PM, sweetandsour said:

That self-indulgence is my biggest problem with Feds.  She is the star, it is Niecy's show.  Got it, no problem.  But I don't want to watch "The Niecy Nash Show" where it's all about how great she always is, and everyone who doubts her is always wrong, and her constant pushiness in an order-following law enforcement group is warranted and rewarded because she is the key to success.

Right away, it annoyed me how Simone got to bypass that background check desk job and be jetted off to do exciting things. IRL she'd be at that desk, and be happy for the opportunity, like didn't they say it's really hard to get into the FBI in the first place? And no doubt people have been there 20+ years, working hard for promotions, but Simone and her boobs and her sassy wisdom just get to bypass all that.

[Raja]

2 hours ago, SnarkySheep said:

Right away, it annoyed me how Simone got to bypass that background check desk job and be jetted off to do exciting things. IRL she'd be at that desk, and be happy for the opportunity, like didn't they say it's really hard to get into the FBI in the first place? And no doubt people have been there 20+ years, working hard for promotions, but Simone and her boobs and her sassy wisdom just get to bypass all that.

Given that her academy classmate star probie went straight to the field, with a profiler no less. As profilers have been shown as the SEALs of FBI Agents for detection skills for a decade due to Criminal Minds it bothers me not at all. In fact it played like Sergeant Grey saying he was going to break Nolan and get him to quit even though  his Captain wanted the oldest rookie in the first episodes of the mothership.

But in general it does remind me of the half season and done show on FOX, Deputy. Where the Sheriff's godson spends a total of one day as a jailer when real life L.A. County Sheriff's Deputies spend years policing the jails before being sent out to patrol the streets of the county if they want that career path.